The Spy's Dark Teddy Bear
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Just a drabble in my series of Filch as a spy. Set in Harry's first Hogwarts year. Completely AU, Filch OOC.


**The Spy's Dark Teddy Bear  
by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

* * *

"Harry Potter! Come back here and clean up after yourself immediately!" Harry heard the caretaker shout after him and looked around in confusion. Although he was walking through the entrance hall together with the whole Quidditch team, only behind himself was a distinctive trace of mud.

While the others strode ahead towards the common room, where their victory party was going to commence any minute now, the first-year remained and pulled his wand, feverishly trying to think of a spell that would allow him to tidy up before Filch would order him to clean the floor by Muggle means. However, the caretaker merely stood there, smirking, and when Harry looked up in confusion, he realised that the floor was already as clean as it could be.

_'What was that?'_ he wondered. _'Did he want me to miss the party? After what happened during the match? Is this a plot? Does someone really want to harm me?'_ His thoughts went haywire, before he was brought back to reality when Mr. Filch addressed him again.

"Mr. Potter, please follow me into my office for a moment," the caretaker instructed him in a firm voice that was much friendlier than usual.

_'This is a trap,'_ Harry realised. _'Filch would never speak to me in such a way.'_ However, before he had a chance to run away, Filch firmly closed the door behind him.

"Mr. Potter, have you not noticed that Professor Quirrell is possessed by Voldemort?" Filch suddenly queried, causing Harry to stare at the old Squib in disbelief.

"Excuse me sir, but who are you and what have you done to Mr. Filch?" Harry queried, looking sceptical.

Filch rolled his eyes and - to Harry's horror - pulled a wand out of his robe pocket. "Accio map," he said in a barely audible voice.

A mere instant later, a parchment hovered through the air and into the caretaker's hand. "Here," Filch said and held out the map for Harry to see, pointing to two small dots on the map.

"'Harry Potter' and 'Argus Filch'" Harry read in utter confusion. "So you're not a Squib," he stated the obvious.

"Exactly Mr. Potter," Filch replied, smirking. "However, you're not to reveal this matter to anyone. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir," Harry replied quietly.

"I'm keeping you from your victory party, which is not my intention," Filch continued to speak. "I merely want you to practise a spell." Seeing Harry's questioning expression, he explained, "As I have told you, Professor Quirrell is possessed by Voldemort, and we have to get rid of the spirit before he'll be able to take over Quirrell's body. Do you understand me so far?"

"Yes," Harry replied, slowly. _'That's why my head always hurts in Quirrell's company,'_ he thought. _'I believe Filch, as strange as it is that he knows such things and is able to cast magic in spite of being supposed to be a Squib.'_

During the following thirty minutes, Filch made Harry practise two spells on a dark brown teddy bear that was sitting on the desk in front of him.

"Very well," the caretaker finally said. "That suffices for now. Come back here right after dinner tonight. Several of my colleagues will join us as well. Professor Quirrell will come here, too. First of all, you must cast the first spell that you just practised. This will bring Voldemort's spirit to the front. You'll notice when your spell is successful, since your head will probably begin to hurt as soon as Voldemort has taken over. Do you understand me so far?" he queried, giving Harry a sharp look.

"Yes sir," Harry replied, feeling very anxious at the thought of casting the spell at the possessed professor instead of the teddy bear.

"Very well, as soon as you give us a signal, my colleagues and I will all cast the second spell together with you. Afterwards, one of my colleagues will give us instructions how to proceed in order to completely vanish him. As far as I know, you won't have to do anything else but watch."

"Excuse me sir," Harry spoke up, still feeling very confused. "Why are you teaching me the spells and not for example Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall?"

"They don't know that Professor Quirrell is possessed," Filch replied in a firm voice, before he dismissed the boy with the instruction to not speak about the matter with anyone. When Harry stepped out into the hall, he heard the caretaker shout behind him, "Detention with me tonight for your insolence."

HP

Harry slowly returned to the common room, deep in thoughts. _'It would be great if we could get rid of Voldemort's spirit that way, but what if it's a trap? Should I go there tonight or better not?'_ By the time he had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, he had decided to speak about the matter with Hermione. _'She'll know what I should do,'_ he resolved.

HP

A few hours into the party, he coaxed Hermione into going to the library, knowing that it was the only place, where Ron wouldn't insist on accompanying them. However, on the way to the library, he motioned Hermione into an unused classroom, before he asked, "Mione, do you know how to cast a silencing spell?"

Rolling her eyes, Hermione cast the requested spell, before she enquired, "Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry let out a long sigh, before he explained about the earlier events in Mr. Filch's office, ending, "I don't know if it's a trap, but apparently there's no other way to find out than to go there and hope for the best."

"Yes, I think so too," Hermione replied, pensively. "The whole story sounds far-fetched but on the other hand reasonable. It would also make sense to believe that Voldemort is the one who's after the thing that Fluffy is guarding, whatever it is." Giving her best friend a sharp look, she decided, "I'm going to hide in the alcove right opposite of Mr. Filch's office. If something is wrong, you only have to shout, and I'll go and fetch Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall."

"Thank you Mione," Harry replied in relief, feeling very much consoled by his friend's words.

HP

Right after dinner, Harry returned to Mr. Filch's office with mixed feelings. To his surprise, not only Mr. Filch and three men, whom Harry had never seen before, but also Professor Snape was present in the small office. The teddy bear that Harry had used to practise earlier was still sitting on the desk. He hesitantly greeted the others, feeling slightly consoled by the fact that Snape was present. Even if the professor seemed to greatly dislike him, at least he was sure that the older wizard had never tried to harm him so far, even if Hermione and Ron seemed to disagree on this matter. He quietly stood next to the Potions Master and waited for what was going to happen.

After a little while, there was a knock at the door, and Professor Quirrell entered the room. Harry absentmindedly listened how one of the unknown men introduced himself as Mr. McNeill, when he noticed Mr. Filch give him a small nod.

Harry unobtrusively pointed his wand at Quirrell and cast the first spell, noticing in annoyance that his head began to hurt badly. He nodded back at Filch, and while Voldemort's spirit began to shout at Quirrell "You must kill the boy, before he kills us", Harry, Snape and Mr. Filch's colleagues cast the second spell at the Defence professor, causing a black cloud to emerge from the professor's head.

"Leave it to me," one of the men said, and Harry observed with bewilderment how the black cloud was guided into the brown teddy bear on the desk.

"Now the spell to gather all the Horcruxes back to his soul, so that we can vanish him as a whole," someone said, and the adults once again raised their wands.

A mere instant later, Harry felt a sharp pain in his scar, before the world turned black.

HP

Hermione observed the door to Mr. Filch's office in growing concern. Not a single sound had come out of the office since Harry had entered it almost twenty minutes ago. She was just beginning to ponder if she should speak with Professor McGonagall, when the door of the office opened and Professor Snape carried a seemingly unconscious Harry out. She was just about to leave her alcove and run behind the couple, when Mr. Filch and three men, whom Hermione had never seen before, stepped out of the office as well.

"Well done, thank you all," Mr. Filch thanked three men, who made a beeline through the entrance hall and out of the castle. One of them was carrying a brown teddy bear.

_'A teddy bear?'_ Hermione wondered, incredulously. _'Since when do adults carry around stuffed animals?' _

However, before Hermione could further ponder the matter, she observed, horrified, how the old caretaker stepped into the entrance hall, pointed a wand at Snape and Harry in a quick sequence and mumbled twice, "Obliviate."

_'Filch's not a Squib, but why did he obliviate them?'_ Hermione wondered and, seeing that Filch had returned into his office, left the alcove to hurry behind Harry and the Potions professor.

HP

_'Why am I carrying this dunderhead?'_ Severus wondered, but, seeing that the boy seemed to be unconscious, carried him to the hospital wing and laid him into the first bed, before he called Poppy.

"What happened Severus?" the Mediwitch queried, already waving her wand over the boy.

"Poppy, I have no idea," Severus admitted in confusion. "I almost feel as if someone had obliviated me."

"That was Mr. Filch," the insufferable first-year know-it-all Granger informed them, sneaking into the hospital wing. She quickly informed the two adults what Harry had told her earlier, causing Severus to quirk an eyebrow in silent question.

"Severus, it must have been successful," Poppy suddenly blurted out. "Look, Harry's scar is gone."

The Potions Master quickly rolled up his left sleeve, staring at the blank arm in shock. "The Dark Mark as well," he uttered, "but why Filch?"

"Severus and Ms. Granger," Poppy suddenly said in a stern voice. "So far I was the only one at Hogwarts who knew about the fact that Mr. Filch is a powerful wizard and a spy for the Ministry, and apparently he wanted to keep it this way, thus the memory charm. Therefore, please keep this information to yourselves."

HP

"We will, but what's wrong with Harry?" Hermione asked, urgently.

"He's in only asleep right now and has depleted his magic to a great extent, but otherwise he's fine," Pomfrey replied, smiling.

HP

At the same time, Argus Filch returned into his office and scribbled on a parchment, _'Mission accomplished. Thanks for the help.'_ Taking the parchment into his private quarters, he handed it to his small owl, Mr. Nugget, and instructed him to deliver it to the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Mysteries, for which he had already been a spy over many years.

**The End**


End file.
